This post is going to be very different from my others. However, the Lord has been impressing on my spirit this word for a long time, but I have somewhat avoided it. I can no longer do that. I have a yearning and aching in my spirit for other believers right now, and I know the Lord has something to say to us. So I come with an attitude of submission and humbleness to this post. I come with the spirit that Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to have with one another in Chapter 5:14-18
“We [earnestly] urge you, believers, admonish those who are out of line [the undisciplined, the unruly, the disorderly], encourage the timid [who lack spiritual courage], help the [spiritually] weak, be very patient with everyone [always controlling your temper]. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek that which is good for one another and for all people. Rejoice always and delight in your faith; be unceasing and persistent in prayer; in every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
In our society today, when someone shares something of concern with another, it is often shared with pride and received with anger. Please know I write this out of love, and feel we, as believers, are called to hold one another accountable with our actions and deeds. We cannot grow, in Christ, if we are never willing to hear when we have possibly been deceived.
I look around at our world, I look around, more specifically, at my country, and I am heart broken. There is so much hatred, quarrels, shaming, fights, etc. that it is hard to find any love or hope. However, as most are saddened because everyone seems to be acting this way, I am hurting because those that call themselves Christians are acting this way. Believers that are praising and thanking Jesus with one breath are yelling and shaming with another.
“Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts].” James 3:10
My brothers and sisters, what are we doing? When did we get so tied up into the world that we forgot our fear of God and lost respect for His commands? We use social media not as a place to bring hope, but as a place to bring judgment and to satisfy our own selfish desires. To spew out our own selfish motives. To side with and fight for a political party instead of "the King of kings and Lord of lords". In James 3, James warns believers what it will look like if we are acting out of our own ambition and not God's.
“Who among you is wise and intelligent? Let him by his good conduct show his [good] deeds with the gentleness and humility of true wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be arrogant, and [as a result] be in defiance of the truth. This [superficial] wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly (secular), natural (unspiritual), even demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder [unrest, rebellion] and every evil thing and morally degrading practice.
James 3:13-16
Does it feel like "there is disorder [unrest, rebellion] and every evil thing and morally degrading practice" going on around you right now? Why are we placing all that blame on others? Instead of standing and pointing our finger at the ones living in the world, we need to look in a mirror. We know the Truth, yet we still act according to lies. Jesus made it clear in John 14:16-17 that those of the world, those that have chosen to live by the things of the world, and not the teachings of Jesus, cannot know truth.
“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever— the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive [and take to its heart] because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He (the Holy Spirit) remains with you continually and will be in you."
We have to stop blaming only non-believers for the state in which our world, and more specifically the United States, is in. Those that don't know the Lord, can't know true truth. Therefore they can't act according to it. They can know the "truth" that the media tells them, or the "truth" that Hollywood tells them, but to know true truth is to know Jesus, who gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us in truth. We, as believers, have that guide in us. So why do we look the same as the world? Why are our actions led more by our emotions than they are our Father? And the wisdom and knowledge that we are sharing on all our different social media accounts, where is it coming from? Are we gathering information from news or political pundits and letting that be our wisdom? How is that different from what those living in the world are doing?
Everything. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-I-n-g must be weighed against the Truth before we react to it. And if we do that. If we take all information and lay it before Jesus, true wisdom comes. And others will know that it is wisdom from above because "it is first pure [morally and spiritually undefiled], then peace-loving [courteous, considerate], gentle, reasonable [and willing to listen], full of compassion and good fruits. It is unwavering, without [self-righteous] hypocrisy [and self-serving guile]. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness (spiritual maturity) is sown in peace by those who make peace [by actively encouraging goodwill between individuals].” James 3:16-18
My brothers and sisters, we are allowing ourselves to be deceived. We are consuming the news more than we are consuming the Word of God and, in result, we have given Satan a foothold. We are like Eve in the garden, when Satan did the most cunning thing of all, he mixed truth with a lie. The truth was, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely (unconditionally) eat [the fruit] from every tree of the garden; but [only] from the tree of the knowledge (recognition) of good and evil you shall not eat, otherwise on the day that you eat from it, you shall most certainly die [because of your disobedience].” (Genesis 2:16-17) Satan knew what the Lord had said, however, he says to Eve, “...Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). How often in our society today are we as believers falling for Satan's oldest trick? How often have you or I gotten upset and flew of the handle because someone said, "Did (put in any political name you like) really say...?". Or "did that documentary really say...?". We consume video after video or post after post getting partial truths and acting on them like they are complete and whole. The author Tennyson once said, "A lie that is all of a lie can be met with and fought outright. But a lie that is partly the truth is a harder matter to fight." We cannot keep consuming half-truths, worldly truths and allow them to be what we post about or talk about. We have to take everything we hear, everything we read, straight to the throne of Jesus. Allow Him to show us what we should say or do, or even if we should say or do. And how do we know we are hearing Him? Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments.” When we have consumed more of God and His Word than we have of the world then we will be able to know, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the truth. How we should act. How we should react.
We can be the hope this world needs. We can be the light in the darkness. Imagine if every believer used their social media accounts or their every encounter with another to be "peace-loving, gentle, reasonable [and willing to listen], full of compassion and good fruits". How we could change the world! There is no reason it can't be that way. We are not here to have more boldness representing a political party than we do our Savior. He IS truth. He IS life. He IS the way. And He IS the only One that we should look to for our wisdom. To show us how to live. And most importantly to show us how to love. Love the world. Love each other.
There is no other way to end this post than to ask each of us to take a moment to soak in some wisdom. To be reminded what love TRULY looks like. And to ask ourselves, "Do I love or am I but a clanging cymbal?"
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction]. And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing. If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all. Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening]. Love never fails [it never fades nor ends]."
1 Corinthians 13:1-9
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